Patient Satisfaction Survey De-Identification with anonym.plus

Healthcare Solution · Hospital Administration · HIPAA Privacy Rule (45 CFR Part 164)

Survey de-identification is the removal of personal data from patient feedback, above all the free-text comments. It meets the HIPAA Privacy Rule (45 CFR Part 164). anonym.plus runs on your device and keeps the scores and themes intact.

When this applies

Open comments often name a nurse, a doctor, or the writer's own case. To share feedback with units, those names come out while the praise or concern stays.

How anonym.plus handles it

1. Load the responses into anonym.plus on your device.
2. Local OCR reads scanned paper forms first.
3. It scans each comment for names, dates, and contacts.
4. Confirm the flags and keep the rating fields.
5. Swap each named item, or black it out.
6. Save the clean responses. Source forms stay local.

What you need to provide

• The responses (CSV, PDF, DOCX, or scan).
• An operator (Replace keeps comments readable).
• Optional allow-list for unit and ward labels.

PHI entity types detected

Compliance achieved

• Meets the HIPAA Privacy Rule (45 CFR Part 164) for reuse.
• Catches names in free text, where they hide most often.
• Offline work keeps feedback inside your service.

Limitations & cautions

Free-text comments are the riskiest part. A writer may give a job, a date, or a room that points to one person after the name goes. Review flagged comments, since an automated pass cannot judge every unique life clue.